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Cancer/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A boy, Tim, is sitting in his living room chair, reading a horoscope in a newspaper. A robot, Moby, is standing behind the chair, looking over Tim's shoulder. TIM: OK, here's mine. Scorpio. You will be especially thoughtful today, and your curiosity will be strong. Also, someone close to you is planning to squirt you with a hose. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Nah, I don't believe in these things, but here's yours. Cancer. Today, like all days, is a good time to act destructively without any regard to the consequences. If there's a hose around, you know what to... Tim pauses. Moby is still behind Tim's chair, but now he is aiming a garden hose at Tim's head. He shoots Tim with water. TIM: Aaaah! Stop it! Astrology isn't a science! It's not real! Moby stops squirting Tim, who is now drenched. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I hear a lot about cancer. It seems scary. What is it? From, EJ. Tim is drying off his head with a towel. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No, I don't think he's talking about your horoscope. Tim stops drying himself. TIM: Cancer can be pretty scary. It's a disease that makes your cells reproduce too quickly. People do die from cancer, but if it's caught early enough doctors can help a lot. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, Moby. Healthy human cells reproduce all the time. An image shows a single, healthy human cell. TIM: It's how you grow, and how your body fixes injuries and replaces old tissue. An animation shows a cell dividing into two, then the two cells dividing into four. TIM: But if you get cancer, your cell growth goes out of control. One of the four cells becomes dark and starts dividing more quickly. TIM: In most forms of cancer, these extra cells form a lump called a tumor. The dark cells become a single mass. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. Tumors are frightening, but not all of them are dangerous. Sometimes, cells form a benign tumor. Benign is just another word for harmless. An image shows a benign tumor just below the surface of someone's skin. TIM: If you develop one of these, a doctor will probably take it out through surgery. Once it's out, you're usually OK. An image shows a doctor performing surgery on a patient. TIM: A malignant tumor is a different story. Moby looks sad. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yep. The word malignant means dangerous and harmful. While a benign tumor usually just forms a lump, malignant tumors keep growing and growing. Side-by-side images compare a benign tumor to a malignant one. The malignant tumor is spread out and misshapen. TIM: If a malignant tumor gets too large, cancer cells can enter your bloodstream. They can travel to other parts of your body and infect them with cancer. That's called metastasis, and it can be deadly. An animation shows cancer cells traveling through a bloodstream. They continue reproducing at a rapid rate as they travel. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Why do cells start growing out of control? That's a good question. As you know, every cell in your body contains a molecule of DNA. An extreme close-up of a cell shows its DNA. TIM: Your DNA tells your cells when and how to divide. Sometimes your DNA gets damaged, and your body fixes it. A piece of the DNA breaks loose, and small cartoon characters with wrenches appear and repair it. TIM: But if your body can't fix the problem, the damaged DNA may tell your cells to start dividing and keep dividing. The image zooms out from the damaged DNA to the complete cell. The cell starts quickly dividing into several cells. TIM: DNA can get damaged by substances called carcinogens. Carcinogen literally means cancer-causing agent. Images represent three types of carcinogens. TIM: Tobacco smoke is a pretty common carcinogen. An animation shows a man and a woman in an alley, smoking cigarettes. TIM: So are certain chemicals used in manufacturing. An animation shows factories emitting smoke into the atmosphere. TIM: And radioactive materials like nuclear waste emit particles that can damage your DNA. An image shows barrels of nuclear waste. TIM: Sometimes people even inherit faulty DNA from their parents. So if there's a history of cancer in your family, make sure to get yourself checked out pretty regularly. An image shows three generations of a family tree. Some members of the family are shown to have defective DNA. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. If cancer is detected early on, the chance of a full recovery is much higher. Doctors can search for cancer cells using body scan technology. Body scans have names with lots of initials, like MRI, CT scan, and PET scan. An image shows a patient being placed into an MRI machine. TIM: You can check out our movie on them to learn all about them. They use things like powerful magnets, high-frequency radio waves, and small doses of radioactive liquid to detect abnormalities. Images show computer screens processing images from body scan machines. TIM: If a tumor is detected, a doctor can place the patient on a program of chemotherapy. An image shows a doctor with a clipboard, counseling a patient in a hospital bed. TIM: Chemotherapy uses drugs to stop cancer cells from growing. The doctor might also recommend radiation therapy, or she may try to remove a tumor through surgery. It all depends on the type of cancer. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah. Kids can get cancer, but it mostly strikes older adults. Knowing someone with cancer can be a really tough thing to go through. Among other things, some of the treatments can have some not-so-pleasant side effects. An animation shows a patient in a hospital bed, feeling nauseous. TIM: The good news is, with early detection, many cancers can be completely wiped out. So it's important that you get a medical checkup every year to make sure you're healthy. From off-screen, Moby squirts Tim in the face with a hose again. Tim frowns. MOBY: Beep. TIM: OK. First of all, your star sign has nothing to do with cancer, the disease. Second of all, astrology is totally fake. Third of all, you're a jerk. MOBY: Beep. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Health Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts